'\" et
.TH MORE "1P" 2017 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
.\"
.SH PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
.\"
.SH NAME
more
\(em display files on a page-by-page basis
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
more \fB[\fR-ceisu\fB] [\fR-n \fInumber\fB] [\fR-p \fIcommand\fB] [\fR-t \fItagstring\fB] [\fIfile\fR...\fB]\fR
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.IR more
utility shall read files and either write them to the terminal on a
page-by-page basis or filter them to standard output. If standard
output is not a terminal device, all input files shall be copied to
standard output in their entirety, without modification, except as
specified for the
.BR \-s
option. If standard output is a terminal device, the files shall be
written a number of lines (one screenful) at a time under the control
of user commands. See the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section.
.P
Certain block-mode terminals do not have all the capabilities necessary
to support the complete
.IR more
definition; they are incapable of accepting commands that are not
terminated with a
<newline>.
Implementations that support such terminals shall provide an
operating mode to
.IR more
in which all commands can be terminated with a
<newline>
on those terminals. This mode:
.IP " *" 4
Shall be documented in the system documentation
.IP " *" 4
Shall, at invocation, inform the user of the terminal deficiency that
requires the
<newline>
usage and provide instructions on how this warning can be suppressed in
future invocations
.IP " *" 4
Shall not be required for implementations supporting only fully capable
terminals
.IP " *" 4
Shall not affect commands already requiring
<newline>
characters
.IP " *" 4
Shall not affect users on the capable terminals from using
.IR more
as described in this volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017
.SH OPTIONS
The
.IR more
utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
.IR "Section 12.2" ", " "Utility Syntax Guidelines",
except that
.BR '\(pl' 
may be recognized as an option delimiter as well as
.BR '\-' .
.P
The following options shall be supported:
.IP "\fB\-c\fP" 10
If a screen is to be written that has no lines in common with the
current screen, or
.IR more
is writing its first screen,
.IR more
shall not scroll the screen, but instead shall redraw each line of the
screen in turn, from the top of the screen to the bottom. In addition,
if
.IR more
is writing its first screen, the screen shall be cleared. This option
may be silently ignored on devices with insufficient terminal
capabilities.
.IP "\fB\-e\fP" 10
Exit immediately after writing the last line of the last file in the
argument list; see the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section.
.IP "\fB\-i\fP" 10
Perform pattern matching in searches without regard to case; see the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
.IR "Section 9.2" ", " "Regular Expression General Requirements".
.IP "\fB\-n\ \fInumber\fR" 10
Specify the number of lines per screenful. The
.IR number
argument is a positive decimal integer. The
.BR \-n
option shall override any values obtained from any other source.
.IP "\fB\-p\ \fIcommand\fR" 10
Each time a screen from a new file is displayed or redisplayed
(including as a result of
.IR more
commands; for example,
.BR :p ),
execute the
.IR more
command(s) in the command arguments in the order specified, as if
entered by the user after the first screen has been displayed. No
intermediate results shall be displayed (that is, if the command is a
movement to a screen different from the normal first screen, only the
screen resulting from the command shall be displayed.) If any of the
commands fail for any reason, an informational message to this effect
shall be written, and no further commands specified using the
.BR \-p
option shall be executed for this file.
.IP "\fB\-s\fP" 10
Behave as if consecutive empty lines were a single empty line.
.IP "\fB\-t\ \fItagstring\fR" 10
Write the screenful of the file containing the tag named by the
.IR tagstring
argument. See the
.IR "\fIctags\fR\^"
utility. The tags feature represented by
.BR \-t
.IR tagstring
and the
.BR :t
command is optional. It shall be provided on any system that also
provides a conforming implementation of
.IR ctags ;
otherwise, the use of
.BR \-t
produces undefined results.
.RS 10 
.P
The filename resulting from the
.BR \-t
option shall be logically added as a prefix to the list of command line
files, as if specified by the user. If the tag named by the
.IR tagstring
argument is not found, it shall be an error, and
.IR more
shall take no further action.
.P
If the tag specifies a line number, the first line of the display shall
contain the beginning of that line. If the tag specifies a pattern, the
first line of the display shall contain the beginning of the matching
text from the first line of the file that contains that pattern. If the
line does not exist in the file or matching text is not found, an
informational message to this effect shall be displayed, and
.IR more
shall display the default screen as if
.BR \-t
had not been specified.
.P
If both the
.BR \-t
.IR tagstring
and
.BR \-p
.IR command
options are given, the
.BR \-t
.IR tagstring
shall be processed first; that is, the file and starting line for the
display shall be as specified by
.BR \-t ,
and then the
.BR \-p
.IR more
command shall be executed. If the line (matching text) specified by the
.BR \-t
command does not exist (is not found), no
.BR \-p
.IR more
command shall be executed for this file at any time.
.RE
.IP "\fB\-u\fP" 10
Treat a
<backspace>
as a printable control character, displayed as an
implementation-defined character sequence (see the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
section), suppressing backspacing and the special handling that
produces underlined or standout mode text on some terminal types.
Also, do not ignore a
<carriage-return>
at the end of a line.
.SH OPERANDS
The following operand shall be supported:
.IP "\fIfile\fR" 10
A pathname of an input file. If no
.IR file
operands are specified, the standard input shall be used. If a
.IR file
is
.BR '\-' ,
the standard input shall be read at that point in the sequence.
.SH STDIN
The standard input shall be used only if no
.IR file
operands are specified, or if a
.IR file
operand is
.BR '\-' .
.SH "INPUT FILES"
The input files being examined shall be text files. If standard output
is a terminal, standard error shall be used to read commands from the
user. If standard output is a terminal, standard error is not readable,
and command input is needed,
.IR more
may attempt to obtain user commands from the controlling terminal (for
example,
.BR /dev/tty );
otherwise,
.IR more
shall terminate with an error indicating that it was unable to read
user commands. If standard output is not a terminal, no error shall
result if standard error cannot be opened for reading.
.SH "ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES"
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
.IR more :
.IP "\fICOLUMNS\fP" 10
Override the system-selected horizontal display line size. See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
.IR "Chapter 8" ", " "Environment Variables"
for valid values and results when it is unset or null.
.IP "\fIEDITOR\fP" 10
Used by the
.BR v
command to select an editor. See the EXTENDED DESCRIPTION section.
.IP "\fILANG\fP" 10
Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are
unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
.IR "Section 8.2" ", " "Internationalization Variables"
for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine
the values of locale categories.)
.IP "\fILC_ALL\fP" 10
If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the
other internationalization variables.
.IP "\fILC_COLLATE\fP" 10
.br
Determine the locale for the behavior of ranges, equivalence classes,
and multi-character collating elements within regular expressions.
.IP "\fILC_CTYPE\fP" 10
Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of
text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to
multi-byte characters in arguments and input files) and the behavior of
character classes within regular expressions.
.IP "\fILC_MESSAGES\fP" 10
.br
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and
contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error and
informative messages written to standard output.
.IP "\fINLSPATH\fP" 10
Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
.IR LC_MESSAGES .
.IP "\fILINES\fP" 10
Override the system-selected vertical screen size, used as the number
of lines in a screenful. See the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
.IR "Chapter 8" ", " "Environment Variables"
for valid values and results when it is unset or null. The
.BR \-n
option shall take precedence over the
.IR LINES
variable for determining the number of lines in a screenful.
.IP "\fIMORE\fP" 10
Determine a string containing options described in the OPTIONS section
preceded with
<hyphen-minus>
characters and
<blank>-separated
as on the command line. Any command line options shall be processed
after those in the
.IR MORE
variable, as if the command line were:
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

more $MORE \fIoptions operands\fR
.fi
.P
.RE
.P
The
.IR MORE
variable shall take precedence over the
.IR TERM
and
.IR LINES
variables for determining the number of lines in a screenful.
.RE
.IP "\fITERM\fP" 10
Determine the name of the terminal type. If this variable is unset or
null, an unspecified default terminal type is used.
.SH "ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS"
Default.
.SH STDOUT
The standard output shall be used to write the contents of the input
files.
.SH STDERR
The standard error shall be used for diagnostic messages and user
commands (see the INPUT FILES section), and, if standard output is a
terminal device, to write a prompting string. The prompting string
shall appear on the screen line below the last line of the file
displayed in the current screenful. The prompt shall contain the name
of the file currently being examined and shall contain an end-of-file
indication and the name of the next file, if any, when prompting at the
end-of-file. If an error or informational message is displayed, it is
unspecified whether it is contained in the prompt. If it is not
contained in the prompt, it shall be displayed and then the user shall
be prompted for a continuation character, at which point another
message or the user prompt may be displayed. The prompt is otherwise
unspecified. It is unspecified whether informational messages are
written for other user commands.
.SH "OUTPUT FILES"
None.
.SH "EXTENDED DESCRIPTION"
The following section describes the behavior of
.IR more
when the standard output is a terminal device. If the standard output
is not a terminal device, no options other than
.BR \-s
shall have any effect, and all input files shall be copied to standard
output otherwise unmodified, at which time
.IR more
shall exit without further action.
.P
The number of lines available per screen shall be determined by the
.BR \-n
option, if present, or by examining values in the environment (see the
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES section). If neither method yields a number, an
unspecified number of lines shall be used.
.P
The maximum number of lines written shall be one less than this number,
because the screen line after the last line written shall be used to
write a user prompt and user input. If the number of lines in the
screen is less than two, the results are undefined. It is unspecified
whether user input is permitted to be longer than the remainder of the
single line where the prompt has been written.
.P
The number of columns available per line shall be determined by
examining values in the environment (see the ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
section), with a default value as described in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
.IR "Chapter 8" ", " "Environment Variables".
.P
Lines that are longer than the display shall be folded; the length at
which folding occurs is unspecified, but should be appropriate for the
output device. Folding may occur between glyphs of single characters
that take up multiple display columns.
.P
When standard output is a terminal and
.BR \-u
is not specified,
.IR more
shall treat
<backspace>
and
<carriage-return>
characters specially:
.IP " *" 4
A character, followed first by a sequence of
.IR n
<backspace>
characters (where
.IR n
is the same as the number of column positions that the character
occupies), then by
.IR n
<underscore>
characters (\c
.BR '_' ),
shall cause that character to be written as underlined text, if the
terminal type supports that. The
.IR n
<underscore>
characters, followed first by
.IR n
<backspace>
characters, then any character with
.IR n
column positions, shall also cause that character to be written as
underlined text, if the terminal type supports that.
.IP " *" 4
A sequence of
.IR n
<backspace>
characters (where
.IR n
is the same as the number of column positions that the previous
character occupies) that appears between two identical printable
characters shall cause the first of those two characters to be written
as emboldened text (that is, visually brighter, standout mode, or
inverse-video mode), if the terminal type supports that, and the second
to be discarded. Immediately subsequent occurrences of
<backspace>/\c
character pairs for that same character shall also be discarded. (For
example, the sequence
.BR \(dqa\eba\eba\eba\(dq 
is interpreted as a single emboldened
.BR 'a' .)
.IP " *" 4
The
.IR more
utility shall logically discard all other
<backspace>
characters from the line as well as the character which precedes them,
if any.
.IP " *" 4
A
<carriage-return>
at the end of a line shall be ignored, rather than being written as a
non-printable character, as described in the next paragraph.
.P
It is implementation-defined how other non-printable characters are
written. Implementations should use the same format that they use for
the
.IR ex
.BR print
command; see the OPTIONS section within the
.IR ed
utility. It is unspecified whether a multi-column character shall be
separated if it crosses a display line boundary; it shall not be
discarded. The behavior is unspecified if the number of columns on the
display is less than the number of columns any single character in the
line being displayed would occupy.
.P
When each new file is displayed (or redisplayed),
.IR more
shall write the first screen of the file. Once the initial screen has
been written,
.IR more
shall prompt for a user command. If the execution of the user command
results in a screen that has lines in common with the current screen,
and the device has sufficient terminal capabilities,
.IR more
shall scroll the screen; otherwise, it is unspecified whether the
screen is scrolled or redrawn.
.P
For all files but the last (including standard input if no file was
specified, and for the last file as well, if the
.BR \-e
option was not specified), when
.IR more
has written the last line in the file,
.IR more
shall prompt for a user command. This prompt shall contain the name of
the next file as well as an indication that
.IR more
has reached end-of-file. If the user command is
.BR f ,
<control>\(hyF,
<space>,
.BR j ,
<newline>,
.BR d ,
<control>\(hyD,
or
.BR s ,
.IR more
shall display the next file. Otherwise, if displaying the last file,
.IR more
shall exit. Otherwise,
.IR more
shall execute the user command specified.
.P
Several of the commands described in this section display a previous
screen from the input stream. In the case that text is being taken from
a non-rewindable stream, such as a pipe, it is implementation-defined
how much backwards motion is supported. If a command cannot be executed
because of a limitation on backwards motion, an error message to this
effect shall be displayed, the current screen shall not change, and the
user shall be prompted for another command.
.P
If a command cannot be performed because there are insufficient lines
to display,
.IR more
shall alert the terminal. If a command cannot be performed because
there are insufficient lines to display or a
.BR /
command fails: if the input is the standard input, the last screen in
the file may be displayed; otherwise, the current file and screen shall
not change, and the user shall be prompted for another command.
.P
The interactive commands in the following sections shall be supported.
Some commands can be preceded by a decimal integer, called
.IR count
in the following descriptions. If not specified with the command,
.IR count
shall default to 1. In the following descriptions,
.IR pattern
is a basic regular expression, as described in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
.IR "Section 9.3" ", " "Basic Regular Expressions".
The term ``examine'' is historical usage meaning ``open the
file for viewing''; for example,
.IR more
.BR foo
would be expressed as examining file
.BR foo .
.P
In the following descriptions, unless otherwise specified,
.IR line
is a line in the
.IR more
display, not a line from the file being examined.
.P
In the following descriptions, the
.IR "current position"
refers to two things:
.IP " 1." 4
The position of the current line on the screen
.IP " 2." 4
The line number (in the file) of the current line on the screen
.P
Usually, the line on the screen corresponding to the current position
is the third line on the screen. If this is not possible (there are
fewer than three lines to display or this is the first page of the
file, or it is the last page of the file), then the current position is
either the first or last line on the screen as described later.
.SS "Help"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

h
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Write a summary of these commands and other implementation-defined
commands. The behavior shall be as if the
.IR more
utility were executed with the
.BR \-e
option on a file that contained the summary information. The user shall
be prompted as described earlier in this section when end-of-file is
reached. If the user command is one of those specified to continue to
the next file,
.IR more
shall return to the file and screen state from which the
.BR h
command was executed.
.SS "Scroll Forward One Screenful"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fRf
\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fR<control>-F
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Scroll forward
.IR count
lines, with a default of one screenful. If
.IR count
is more than the screen size, only the final screenful shall be
written.
.SS "Scroll Backward One Screenful"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fRb
\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fR<control>-B
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Scroll backward
.IR count
lines, with a default of one screenful (see the
.BR \-n
option). If
.IR count
is more than the screen size, only the final screenful shall be
written.
.SS "Scroll Forward One Line"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fR<space>
\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fRj
\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fR<newline>
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Scroll forward
.IR count
lines. The default
.IR count
for the
<space>
shall be one screenful; for
.BR j
and
<newline>,
one line. The entire
.IR count
lines shall be written, even if
.IR count
is more than the screen size.
.SS "Scroll Backward One Line"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fRk
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Scroll backward
.IR count
lines. The entire
.IR count
lines shall be written, even if
.IR count
is more than the screen size.
.SS "Scroll Forward One Half Screenful"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fRd
\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fR<control>-D
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Scroll forward
.IR count
lines, with a default of one half of the screen size. If
.IR count
is specified, it shall become the new default for subsequent
.BR d ,
<control>\(hyD,
and
.BR u
commands.
.SS "Skip Forward One Line"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fRs
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Display the screenful beginning with the line
.IR count
lines after the last line on the current screen. If
.IR count
would cause the current position to be such that less than one
screenful would be written, the last screenful in the file shall be
written.
.SS "Scroll Backward One Half Screenful"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fRu
\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fR<control>-U
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Scroll backward
.IR count
lines, with a default of one half of the screen size. If
.IR count
is specified, it shall become the new default for subsequent
.BR d ,
<control>\-D,
.BR u ,
and
<control>\-U
commands. The entire
.IR count
lines shall be written, even if
.IR count
is more than the screen size.
.SS "Go to Beginning of File"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fRg
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Display the screenful beginning with line
.IR count .
.SS "Go to End-of-File"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fRG
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
If
.IR count
is specified, display the screenful beginning with the line
.IR count .
Otherwise, display the last screenful of the file.
.SS "Refresh the Screen"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

r
<control>-L
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Refresh the screen.
.SS "Discard and Refresh"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

R
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Refresh the screen, discarding any buffered input. If the current file
is non-seekable, buffered input shall not be discarded and the
.BR R
command shall be equivalent to the
.BR r
command.
.SS "Mark Position"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

m\fIletter\fR
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Mark the current position with the letter named by
.IR letter ,
where
.IR letter
represents the name of one of the lowercase letters of the portable
character set. When a new file is examined, all marks may be lost.
.SS "Return to Mark"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\&\(aq\fIletter\fR
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Return to the position that was previously marked with the letter named
by
.IR letter ,
making that line the current position.
.SS "Return to Previous Position"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\&\(aq\(aq
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Return to the position from which the last large movement command was
executed (where a ``large movement'' is defined as any movement of more
than a screenful of lines). If no such movements have been made, return
to the beginning of the file.
.SS "Search Forward for Pattern"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fR/\fB[\fR!\fB]\fIpattern\fR<newline>
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Display the screenful beginning with the
.IR count th
line containing the pattern. The search shall start after the first
line currently displayed. The null regular expression (\c
.BR '/' 
followed by a
<newline>)
shall repeat the search using the previous regular expression, with a
default
.IR count .
If the character
.BR '!' 
is included, the matching lines shall be those that do not contain the
.IR pattern .
If no match is found for the
.IR pattern ,
a message to that effect shall be displayed.
.SS "Search Backward for Pattern"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fR?\fB[\fR!\fB]\fIpattern\fR<newline>
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Display the screenful beginning with the
.IR count th
previous line containing the pattern. The search shall start on the
last line before the first line currently displayed. The null regular
expression (\c
.BR '?' 
followed by a
<newline>)
shall repeat the search using the previous regular expression, with a
default
.IR count .
If the character
.BR '!' 
is included, matching lines shall be those that do not contain the
.IR pattern .
If no match is found for the
.IR pattern ,
a message to that effect shall be displayed.
.SS "Repeat Search"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fRn
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Repeat the previous search for
.IR count th
line containing the last
.IR pattern
(or not containing the last
.IR pattern ,
if the previous search was
.BR \(dq/!\(dq 
or
.BR \(dq?!\(dq ).
.SS "Repeat Search in Reverse"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fRN
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Repeat the search in the opposite direction of the previous search for
the
.IR count th
line containing the last
.IR pattern
(or not containing the last
.IR pattern ,
if the previous search was
.BR \(dq/!\(dq 
or
.BR \(dq?!\(dq ).
.SS "Examine New File"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

:e \fB[\fIfilename\fB]\fR<newline>
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Examine a new file. If the
.IR filename
argument is not specified, the current file (see the
.BR :n
and
.BR :p
commands below) shall be re-examined. The
.IR filename
shall be subjected to the process of shell word expansions (see
.IR "Section 2.6" ", " "Word Expansions");
if more than a single pathname results, the effects are unspecified.
If
.IR filename
is a
<number-sign>
(\c
.BR '#' ),
the previously examined file shall be re-examined. If
.IR filename
is not accessible for any reason (including that it is a non-seekable
file), an error message to this effect shall be displayed and the
current file and screen shall not change.
.SS "Examine Next File"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fR:n
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Examine the next file. If a number
.IR count
is specified, the
.IR count th
next file shall be examined. If
.IR filename
refers to a non-seekable file, the results are unspecified.
.SS "Examine Previous File"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

\fB[\fIcount\fB]\fR:p
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Examine the previous file. If a number
.IR count
is specified, the
.IR count th
previous file shall be examined. If
.IR filename
refers to a non-seekable file, the results are unspecified.
.SS "Go to Tag"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

:t \fItagstring\fR<newline>
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
If the file containing the tag named by the
.IR tagstring
argument is not the current file, examine the file, as if the
.BR :e
command was executed with that file as the argument. Otherwise, or in
addition, display the screenful beginning with the tag, as described
for the
.BR \-t
option (see the OPTIONS section). If the
.IR ctags
utility is not supported by the system, the use of
.BR :t
produces undefined results.
.SS "Invoke Editor"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

v
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Invoke an editor to edit the current file being examined. If standard
input is being examined, the results are unspecified. The name of the
editor shall be taken from the environment variable
.IR EDITOR ,
or shall default to
.IR vi .
If the last pathname component in
.IR EDITOR
is either
.IR vi
or
.IR ex ,
the editor shall be invoked with a
.BR \-c
.IR linenumber
command line argument, where
.IR linenumber
is the line number of the file line containing the display line
currently displayed as the first line of the screen. It is
implementation-defined whether line-setting options are passed to
editors other than
.IR vi
and
.IR ex .
.P
When the editor exits,
.IR more
shall resume with the same file and screen as when the editor was
invoked.
.SS "Display Position"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

=
<control>-G
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Write a message for which the information references the first byte of
the line after the last line of the file on the screen. This message
shall include the name of the file currently being examined, its number
relative to the total number of files there are to examine, the line
number in the file, the byte number and the total bytes in the file,
and what percentage of the file precedes the current position. If
.IR more
is reading from standard input, or the file is shorter than a single
screen, the line number, the byte number, the total bytes, and the
percentage need not be written.
.SS "Quit"
.IP "\fISynopsis\fR:" 10
.sp -1v
.RS 10 
.sp
.RS 4
.nf

q
:q
ZZ
.fi
.P
.RE
.RE
.P
Exit
.IR more .
.SH "EXIT STATUS"
The following exit values shall be returned:
.IP "\00" 6
Successful completion.
.IP >0 6
An error occurred.
.SH "CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS"
If an error is encountered accessing a file when using the
.BR :n
command,
.IR more
shall attempt to examine the next file in the argument list, but the
final exit status shall be affected. If an error is encountered
accessing a file via the
.BR :p
command,
.IR more
shall attempt to examine the previous file in the argument list, but
the final exit status shall be affected. If an error is encountered
accessing a file via the
.BR :e
command,
.IR more
shall remain in the current file and the final exit status shall not be
affected.
.LP
.IR "The following sections are informative."
.SH "APPLICATION USAGE"
When the standard output is not a terminal, only the
.BR \-s
filter-modification option is effective. This is based on historical
practice. For example, a typical implementation of
.IR man
pipes its output through
.IR more
.BR \-s
to squeeze excess white space for terminal users. When
.IR man
is piped to
.IR lp ,
however, it is undesirable for this squeezing to happen.
.SH EXAMPLES
The
.BR \-p
allows arbitrary commands to be executed at the start of each file.
Examples are:
.IP "\fImore\ \fB\-p\ G\ \fIfile1\ file2\fR" 6
.br
Examine each file starting with its last screenful.
.IP "\fImore\ \fB\-p\ \fR100\ \fIfile1\ file2\fR" 6
.br
Examine each file starting with line 100 in the current position
(usually the third line, so line 98 would be the first line written).
.IP "\fImore\ \fB\-p\ \fR/100\ \fIfile1\ file2\fR" 6
.br
Examine each file starting with the first line containing the string
.BR \(dq100\(dq 
in the current position
.SH RATIONALE
The
.IR more
utility, available in BSD and BSD-derived systems, was chosen as the
prototype for the POSIX file display program since it is more widely
available than either the public-domain program
.IR less
or than
.IR pg ,
a pager provided in System V. The 4.4 BSD
.IR more
is the model for the features selected; it is almost fully
upwards-compatible from the 4.3 BSD version in wide use and has become
more amenable for
.IR vi
users. Several features originally derived from various file editors,
found in both
.IR less
and
.IR pg ,
have been added to this volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017 as they have proved extremely popular with
users.
.P
There are inconsistencies between
.IR more
and
.IR vi
that result from historical practice. For example, the single-character
commands
.BR h ,
.BR f ,
.BR b ,
and
<space>
are screen movers in
.IR more ,
but cursor movers in
.IR vi .
These inconsistencies were maintained because the cursor movements are
not applicable to
.IR more
and the powerful functionality achieved without the use of the control
key justifies the differences.
.P
The tags interface has been included in a program that is not a text
editor because it promotes another degree of consistent operation with
.IR vi .
It is conceivable that the paging environment of
.IR more
would be superior for browsing source code files in some
circumstances.
.P
The operating mode referred to for block-mode terminals effectively
adds a
<newline>
to each Synopsis line that currently has none. So, for example,
.BR d \c
<newline>
would page one screenful. The mode could be triggered by a command
line option, environment variable, or some other method. The details
are not imposed by this volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017 because there are so few systems known to
support such terminals. Nevertheless, it was considered that all
systems should be able to support
.IR more
given the exception cited for this small community of terminals
because, in comparison to
.IR vi ,
the cursor movements are few and the command set relatively amenable to
the optional
<newline>
characters.
.P
Some versions of
.IR more
provide a shell escaping mechanism similar to the
.IR ex
.BR !
command. The standard developers did not consider that this was
necessary in a paginator, particularly given the wide acceptance of
multiple window terminals and job control features. (They chose to
retain such features in the editors and
.IR mailx
because the shell interaction also gives an opportunity to modify the
editing buffer, which is not applicable to
.IR more .)
.P
The
.BR \-p
(position) option replaces the
.BR +
command because of the Utility Syntax Guidelines. The
.BR \(pl \c
.IR command
option is no longer specified by POSIX.1\(hy2008 but may be present
in some implementations. In early proposals, it took a
.IR pattern
argument, but historical
.IR less
provided the
.IR more
general facility of a command. It would have been desirable to use the
same
.BR \-c
as
.IR ex
and
.IR vi ,
but the letter was already in use.
.P
The text stating ``from a non-rewindable stream .\|.\|. implementations
may limit the amount of backwards motion supported'' would allow an
implementation that permitted no backwards motion beyond text already
on the screen. It was not possible to require a minimum amount of
backwards motion that would be effective for all conceivable device
types. The implementation should allow the user to back up as far as
possible, within device and reasonable memory allocation constraints.
.P
Historically, non-printable characters were displayed using the ARPA
standard mappings, which are as follows:
.IP " 1." 4
Printable characters are left alone.
.IP " 2." 4
Control characters less than \e177 are represented as followed by the
character offset from the
.BR '@' 
character in the ASCII map; for example, \e007 is represented as
.BR 'G' .
.IP " 3." 4
\e177 is represented as followed by
.BR '?' .
.P
The display of characters having their eighth bit set was less
standard. Existing implementations use hex (0x00), octal (\e000), and a
meta-bit display. (The latter displayed characters with their eighth
bit set as the two characters
.BR \(dqM-\(dq ,
followed by the seven-bit display as described previously.) The latter
probably has the best claim to historical practice because it was used
with the
.BR \-v
option of 4 BSD and 4 BSD-derived versions of the
.IR cat
utility since 1980.
.P
No specific display format is required by POSIX.1\(hy2008. Implementations are
encouraged to conform to historic practice in the absence of any strong
reason to diverge.
.SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"
None.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IR "Chapter 2" ", " "Shell Command Language",
.IR "\fIctags\fR\^",
.IR "\fIed\fR\^",
.IR "\fIex\fR\^",
.IR "\fIvi\fR\^"
.P
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
.IR "Chapter 8" ", " "Environment Variables",
.IR "Section 9.2" ", " "Regular Expression General Requirements",
.IR "Section 9.3" ", " "Basic Regular Expressions",
.IR "Section 12.2" ", " "Utility Syntax Guidelines"
.\"
.SH COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition,
Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
.PP
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
in this page are most likely
to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
